The defining moment in my life that shifted the way I was thinking...and brought me to ubuntu.
Great question. Tough to answer.
In the sense of living and breathing and working and playing.
Since I have arrived here I've had this certain thought in my head, but I've felt it's somewhat politically incorrect to say. I'm just going to say it anyway -- there is something incredibly cozy about the slums.
Children run from home to home and are the entire community's children. Mothers share the load of cooking, cleaning and scolding. There's always tons of people around to laugh or play games with. Children bathe together, mothers cook together and men ... well the men seem to sit and chat together.
All along I wanted to see what it was like in Katputli as the sun set and night arrived, as to me dusk is the coziest time of day. During our visits to the girls home on Diwali I got to see it first hand (and probably on the happiest day of the year). Everyone is busy cooking in their homes or just outside of them, children are bouncing from house to house and people gather just to talk or laugh together. They call the elder females "Didi" for "older sister" or "Aunty" if they're a woman so you hear these often. If you sit for one moment and close your eyes, listening with your heart to the shouting and laughing, you get the feeling that you're just visiting one big family.
They are incredibly poor in monetary means. They are constantly faced with difficulty and the air around them literally stinks. Yet there is something so cozy about their lives. And for anyone who knows me, they know the feeling of being cozy means everything. I will miss the wonderful people of cozy Katputli Nagar.
Children run from home to home and are the entire community's children. Mothers share the load of cooking, cleaning and scolding. There's always tons of people around to laugh or play games with. Children bathe together, mothers cook together and men ... well the men seem to sit and chat together.
All along I wanted to see what it was like in Katputli as the sun set and night arrived, as to me dusk is the coziest time of day. During our visits to the girls home on Diwali I got to see it first hand (and probably on the happiest day of the year). Everyone is busy cooking in their homes or just outside of them, children are bouncing from house to house and people gather just to talk or laugh together. They call the elder females "Didi" for "older sister" or "Aunty" if they're a woman so you hear these often. If you sit for one moment and close your eyes, listening with your heart to the shouting and laughing, you get the feeling that you're just visiting one big family.
They are incredibly poor in monetary means. They are constantly faced with difficulty and the air around them literally stinks. Yet there is something so cozy about their lives. And for anyone who knows me, they know the feeling of being cozy means everything. I will miss the wonderful people of cozy Katputli Nagar.
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